Review Corsair Air A115 cooler review: Strong, quiet, and expensive

[Admin]

Corsair’s A115 big air cooler excels in thermal performance while delivering low noise levels, but it has a high price tag.

Corsair Air A115 cooler review: Strong, quiet, and expensive : Read more

 

[dmitche3]

"The cooler arrives in a large-ish box, with the contents protected by cardboard, molded foam, and plastic." I don't know about you but this sold me. Can't wait to get that box! AND with molded foam. It sells chills down my spine.

 

[Tom Sunday]

In this case: My immediate reaction and 'buying decision making' would be in purchasing from NOCTUA. It’s not exactly that Corsair with the Air A115 has any new cooling rabbits or truly noteable cooling improvements in their black hat. Corsair here is essentially just regurgitating a proven dual-tower heatsink design which in principal has been around for many years past. And duplicated and proffered by dozens of other OEMs. The Air A115 also lists within in the $100 pricing range which for Corsair being a non OEM or just a basic component distributor, is exceedingly high and overpriced. I am also not sure why the review made such a big deal about the packaging…large box, molded foam and plastic not withstanding?

 

[Albert.Thomas]

Guys,

I briefly cover the packaging of every cooler I test. This ain't anything new.

 

[stewartwb]

Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 for the win!
Per this review, 1dBA quieter than the Corsair A115 at default fan curve. Within spitting distance on thermals (Only 0.5ºC warmer CPU temp at 175W limit.)
Sliding brackets are cool, but 2.5 times the price? Really? Cost $41 in October 2023. Quietest cooler I've ever owned, even when encoding video on my Ryzen X5700. About as quiet as my son's Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 AIO cooler.

 

[thestryker]

While the big expensive coolers do a really good job I feel like Thermalright has done a number on them. Thermalright is so much less expensive that it narrows an already narrow use case for them. Barring some sort of aesthetic (or brand preference, which I find silly, but understand everyone's different) preference I don't see why you would buy anything else prior to making the jump to AIO/custom loop cooling.

 

[Amdlova]

"The cooler arrives in a large-ish box, with the contents protected by cardboard, molded foam, and plastic." I don't know about you but this sold me. Can't wait to get that box! AND with molded foam. It sells chills down my spine.

I Got some dual tower cooler with some bend because some people tend to play soccer with the package.

 

[Tom Sunday]

Guys,

I briefly cover the packaging of every cooler I test. This ain't anything new.

I agree with your packaging remark. No problem. But here is one for you. Times have a way of flying away from us! Not to forget that Scythe introduced the Mugen-2 CPU cooler 15 years ago. Advertised with excellent cooling performance, excellent workmanship, easy assembly and a super low price. WOW…the Mugen 2 had 'five separate cooling towers' and was then fundamentally very different from anyhing on the market at the time. Scythe attached great importance to the workmanship of the cooler, which was evident, for example, in the cleanly executed fin towers, the nickel-plated and perfectly flat copper base plate or the heat pipe end pieces. There were also changes to the mounting system of the Mugen 2. Instead of the comfortable push-pin system which is not suitable for heavier coolers, Scythe used a backplate and one of the industries first for mounting the Mugen 2.

Even under fair testing conditions the Mugen 2 was able to assert itself as the third most air powerful cooler in the testing line-ups. Even the somewhat more complicated assembly had its reasons and was preferable to a simpler and therefore less safe method. For me personally the Mugen 2 design format came very close in appearance and purpose to the much later introduced Noctua NH-P1 format and for the tower to do all of the heavy lifting. Except that Scythe threw-in and extra fan for good measure. Will history perhaps repeat itself?